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A Plant-Based Diet is Best for a Healthy Heart

What diet helps support a lifetime of good health and provides protection against numerous diseases, including our country’s three biggest killers: heart disease, cancer, and strokes? Leading health experts agree that eating a diet high in plant foods is the best way to nourish ourselves and our families. A plant-based diet is rich in foods from plant sources such as whole grains, beans, lentils and other legumes, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. It does not include animal products such as meats, poultry, seafood, eggs, and sometimes dairy.

Time and again we see news reports on studies that remind us of the health benefits of a plant-based diet in reversing coronary heart disease (CHD). In 2010, a study was published in the World Health Organization’s weekly journal, the Bulletin of the World Health Organization stating that nearly 400,000 people were expected to die of coronary heart disease in the United States in 2010.

Unfortunately, since 2010, the number of deaths from heart disease has increased. Data released in 2016 from the Centers for Disease Control show that the number of deaths from heart disease is now around 630,000 Americans every year. “Half of these deaths could be avoided if people ate healthier food and stopped smoking,” says the study’s co-author Dr. Simon Capewell from the University of Liverpool in England.

Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics states that vegetarians have “lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; ... lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer” and that vegetarians are less likely than non-vegetarians to be obese. Well-planned plant-based diets provide us with all the nutrients that we need, minus all the saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants found in animal flesh and eggs.

Research has shown that vegetarians are up to 68% percent less likely to die from heart disease and they have a decreased overall cancer rate compared to meat-eaters. Plus, vegans and vegetarians had a 2-4 point lower body mass index compared to meat eaters.

In August of 2017 a study on this issue was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This large study focused on body mass index (a measure of body fat) and cardiometabolic disease. The researchers found that “excess weight carries substantially increased risk of CHD, both alone and in combination with hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, or diabetes, in both men and women …”

It’s hard to fight heart disease because of the increasing obesity epidemic. Obesity has associated health problems such as high blood pressure and blood glucose, both of which are also heart disease factors. As part of the fight against heart disease as the #1 killer, we also need to fight the #1 epidemic: obesity.

A wholesome, low-fat plant-based diet is ideal for facilitating weight loss, maintaining a healthy weight, and reducing the risk for heart disease. This is because a plant-based diet is naturally low in fat, high in fiber, and high in fruits and vegetables. Of course, some people can be vegetarians but still eat high-fat, low-fiber foods like French fries and cheese pizza. It is important to limit eating those foods to only occasional consumption.

One should make a daily habit of eating whole grains (brown rice, oats, stone ground whole wheat or sprouted wheat, quinoa, barley, etc), vegetables and fruits (5-9 servings/day), nuts, legumes, and moderate amounts of low-fat dairy products (such as yogurt, cottage cheese, kefir, and low-fat or non-fat milk). It makes sense to include other good health habits such as not smoking and regular physical activity.